IVP Academic Week Part I: Donald Macleod's Christ Crucified

I can characterize the past week or so as my "IVP Academic Week." The reason for this characterization is simple: Three books were sent my way along with a catalog and the IVP Academic Alert. Many thanks to Adrianna Wright, Online Publicist and good friend for sending these publications along, especially during my birthday week.

Donald Macleod

I will mention these publications in separate posts, but today I begin with Christ Crucified: Understanding the Atonement, by theologian, Donald Macleod. Macleod, former principal as well as professor and chair of systematic theology at the Free Church of Scotland College in Edinburgh, offers up a full-scale treatment on the doctrine of the atonement.

Taking my preliminary and tentative observations into account as I have yet to read more than some bits of this volume, I can state confidently that if one were to surmise that this is just another systematic, synthetic analysis of the atonement doctrine, one would be pleasantly surprised at Macleod's approach. It is thoroughly Biblical and Theological in the best sense of both descriptors. First, Macleod examines the entirety of the New Testament in order to explicate what the Gospels, Letters, and the Apocalypse have to say regarding the atonement. One item I appreciate here is Macleod's insistence on the centrality of the cross. He writes:

...the cross is not in the first instance a doctrine, but a fact, and no interpretation of the fact can make the suffering of Christ more or less awful than it actually was. Whether we speak of the cross as penal, piacular, expiatory, propitiatory, vicarious, substitutionary, exemplary, liberating or conquering makes no difference to what Jesus had to endure. The cross remains a fact. With this fact the church, and indeed the whole world, has to reckon; and with this fact all our thinking about the atonement must begin (15).

I am also delighted in the observations Macleod makes when he discusses the "slow motion" the Gospels undertake when they encounter Good Friday (22-23). The remainder of the Gospel's narratives skip much of Jesus' earthly life and ministry, but "when it comes to the crucifixion we have the sequence frame by frame..." (22) Macleod goes on to compare this to the creation accounts in Genesis 1, where the "account covers the events of billions of years in twenty-five verses, ...but when it comes to the creation of the human species, the pace instantly changes" (23).
Then Macleod draws a thought-provoking comparison the Gospels concern for the events of Good Friday with the concern of the creation of human beings in Genesis. He writes:

The reason is simple enough. Humankind is the centre of the story, and the account of the preceding six 'days' serves merely to set the scene for the history of the redemption of our species. It is for the same reason that the crucifixion narrative goes into slow motion. It is the pivot on which the world's redemption turns, and it involves such a sequence of separate events that we assume, instinctively, that they must have occupied several days. Instead we find to our astonishment that they all occurred on one day; and the events of that one single day are reported in meticulous detail (23).

In closing, I am anxious to read more of Macleod's insightful analyses. I am especially looking forward to see how Macleod tackles a recent interpretive trend that states that the punishment of the Son, Jesus, is akin to divine child abuse on the part of God the Father. More anon.

Raymond Brown site Update

Beverly R. Gaventa, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Baylor University, was kind enough to share a photo of Fr. Raymond E. Brown from her personal collection. The picture depicts Fr. Brown lecturing at Colgate Rochester Divinity School ca. 1980. The picture can now be seen on the Raymond Brown site here.

Many thanks to Beverly for sharing such a wonderful picture of Fr. Brown. It was well worth the wait!

More C.F.D. Moule audio

C.F.D. Moule (1908-2007)

Visitors to this blog know that I have posted some audio lectures of one of the leading British New Testament scholars of the 20th century, C.F.D. ("Charlie") Moule. You can access those here.

Recently, I came across some oral history interviews where Charlie discusses his deanship of Clare College, Cambridge (1944-1951), before he became the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity until his retirement in 1976.

Presented here are three extracts from this oral history interview:

Extract 1 - Moule discusses topics such as his time as Dean at Clare, World War 2 and Cambridge, alterations to the interior of the chapel and chapel furniture in the 1950s-60s, structure of chapel administration and staff (14.00) 

 Extract 2 - Admission of female students in the 1970s, increase in the number of Fellows at Clare, organisation of College governance in the 1950s-60s, how the role of the Master changed over time, the foundation of Clare Hall (10.33) 

 Extract 3 - Cambridge College chapels as peculiars, worshipping in chapel, organising interviews for potential incumbents of the College livings (7.45)

Personal highlights for me in listening to these recordings is one gets a keen sense of Charlie's humility. For instance, he praises his successor, another famous NT scholar, John A.T. Robinson, for having a superior deanship vis-a-vis his own. Another item that stood out was Charlie gave this interview at the age of 92. It is remarkable how sharp and witty he is in this rapid-fire exchange. Also, one gets to hear Charlie speak of his first book, An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek, and how pleasantly surprised he was that it was still in print.

Ramsey Michaels' "Remembering Bill Lane"

As promised, Ramsey Michaels' tribute to Bill Lane is now up on the EerdWord blog. Many thanks to Ramsey for his tribute and the picture he provided of himself with Lane and Glenn Barker when they received their Harvard Divinty Th.D.'s in 1962, which I include in this post below.

From Left to Right: Bill Lane, Glenn Barker, Ramsey Michaels

Ramsey Michaels on William Lane

J. Ramsey Michaels

J. Ramsey Michaels, Th.D. Harvard, and author of many fine commentaries, including the outstanding replacement of Leon Morris' The Gospel of John in the NICNT series, recently agreed to write up some reflections on his longtime friend and colleague, the late William L. Lane. These reflections will appear on the EerdWord Blog tomorrow (6/18) in conjunction the fortieth anniversary of Lane's The Gospel of Mark (NICNT).

In a recent email correspondence (6/14/14), Ramsey shared some additional thoughts on Lane and his Mark commentary that he did not include in his tribute. I quote him with his permission:

One very intriguing feature of Bill’s Mark commentary (that I didn’t have the space to include) is his view that the uses of Son of Man in Mark 2:10 and 28 are comments of the evangelist, not intended as words of Jesus. This has two implications: first, that Son of Man does not occur only on the lips of Jesus, but is used as well by Gospel writers; second, that according to Mark, Jesus did not use this term until the first passion prediction, Mark 8:31. I’m not at all sure that I agree, but I find it quite provocative, especially coming from an evangelical in the 1970s.

 Once again, I'd like to thank the good folks at Eerdmans, particularly Rachel Bomberger, Eerdword editor for partnering with me on this tribute. I will post a link to Ramsey's tribute tomorrow.

“William Lane’s The Gospel of Mark, a Benchmark Commentary: A Tribute” by Ardel B. Caneday

As promised, my good friend, Ardel Caneday, shares his thoughts on the personal impact Bill Lane's The Gospel of Mark (NICNT) made upon him over at the EerdWord blog. Many thanks to Rachel Bomberger of EerdWord editor at Eerdmans for partnering with me to make this tribute possible. Click here to read the post.

William Lane’s Mark: Celebrating Forty Years

“Lane is to be commended for his splendid work. It is the best English commentary on Mark today, and will be a standard for years to come.” –Harold W. Hoehner, The Gospel According to Mark: A Review ; Bibliotheca Sacra, 133 no 531 Jl-S 1976, p 266-267; here 267.

William L. Lane

 It was Mark Twain who famously stated that a “classic” is “…a book which people praise and don't read.” What Twain states above is probably true for most of us who own even the very best of commentaries in both the Old and New Testaments. Commentaries are consulted and cherry-picked, but are rarely read cover to cover by most. I am guilty of this charge as well. This is not to say that one needs to read a commentary cover to cover in order to pronounce a judgment over it, but in order to give a commentary the honorific adjective, “classic,” that commentary must have proved itself to be of the highest quality and also make a significant contribution to the state of scholarship during its time and beyond. The timeless quality of a piece of writing can only be determined, ironically, with the passage of time. William L. Lane’s commentary on the Gospel of Mark (NICNT), has persevered over a significant passage of time, forty years to be exact, and remains the last in this series to be replaced (eventually by Rikk Watts). For some perspective, eight Presidential administrations have been conducted since Lane’s The Gospel According to Mark, has been published. Lane’s commentary is to be celebrated not only for its longevity, but also for his insistence that Mark’s narrative be read as a literary whole, and the distinctive theological contribution of the evangelist was to take pride of place in his approach. This allowed Lane to place a strong emphasis on the literary structure of Mark's Gospel, eventually opening the doors to the approach of literary and narrative-critical studies that are prominent today in Markan scholarship.

My own interest in showing appreciation to Lane’s contribution stirred me to contact a couple of friends and colleagues, one Ardel Caneday, Professor of New Testament Studies and Biblical Theology at the University of Northwestern, St. Paul and J. Ramsey Michaels, professor emeritus of religious studies at Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri, and adjunct professor of New Testament at Bangor Theological Seminary, Portland, Maine, to offer some reflections on Lane’s commentary on Mark. Both men are in a good position to do so, as Caneday has taught Mark’s Gospel for over twenty five years and considers Lane’s contribution to be the most formative in his understanding of the second Gospel, and Michaels, was a lifelong friend and colleague of Lane’s, sharing much of their education and teaching experience together, as well as being connected in publishing venues. Over the next couple of weeks, their reflections will be posted on the EerdWord blog, and this blog will provide links to those reflections.